Qatar Plans to Avoid White Elephants from 2022 World Cup

The small nation is trying to avoid creating"white elephant" stadia that cannot reach capacity crowds after the 2022 international soccer tournament is over.

"Now the architects have unveiled detailed plans that will allow organizers in the tiny Gulf nation to remove as many as 170,000 seats - including one entire stadium - from nine of the venues and send them to 22 locations in the developing world.

At a stadium conference in Doha this week, they said the initiative was aimed at insuring the World Cup would leave a lasting legacy.

"If we build up to the capacity which FIFA requires, afterward we would have a lot of white elephants around this area," said Karin Bertaloth, whose firm is designing six new stadiums and two that will be upgraded. "I don't think Qatar needs this capacity. We have the concept to build first tier of the stadium permanently and the second would only be for 2022.""